I had never hugged someone so tight in my life.

“Sorry, am I interrupting?” Brooks said, stepping into the dining room to see Mrs. Boone and me embracing.

“No, no. Any boy who’d sing to an old lady in the hospital is allowed to interrupt.”

Brooks gave her his crooked smile. “You heard me?”

“My goodness, the whole hospital heard you. After you left each night, the nurses went crazy over your voice and your facial hair, which I couldn’t understand for the life of me. Your voice was decent, but you look like a hairy monster. Shaving is okay, you know. I’ll buy you a razorblade if you’d like.”

I walked over to Brooks and rubbed his hairy chin. I liked it, his new look. His arms were toned and muscular, as if he’d been working out for years. He looked so grown up, so manly.

Mrs. Boone groaned. “Well, of course you like it, but your opinion is bias therefore it doesn’t matter. Anyway, here, Brooks.” She dug into her purse and pulled out a set of keys.

“What are these for?” he asked.

“It’s a thank you, for watching over me. Calvin told me you boys are here through the weekend, and he was saying how overly stressed you have been, so I figured you guys could go up to my cabin for a guys’ weekend, do whatever the heck it is that you young folk do nowadays.”

“Wow, that’s awesome. Thank you, Mrs. Boone.”

There was a knock at the front door and Daddy went to open it, revealing a woman with a kind smile. When Mrs. Boone saw her, she rolled her eyes. “Ugh, not you again.”

“Hi, I’m Katelynn,” the woman said. “I’m Mrs. Boone’s new caregiver. It’s just kind of hard to keep up with her. She’s a mover and a shaker.”

“The only thing I’ve been trying to shake is you, stalker,” Mrs. Boone murmured.

I snickered. Good luck to you, Katelynn. She had her hands full with that old lady.

The two of them shuffled back over to Mrs. Boone’s house, and Brooks jingled the keys in his hands. “We don’t have to go up this weekend. I haven’t had nearly enough time with you, and I want to take in every moment.”

I shook my head. We had plenty of moments coming our way. The band deserved to get away from it all, to have some dude time. After some convincing, Brooks agreed to go up north. He promised to be back by Sunday afternoon to spend his last day with me.

Then he promised me more and more days in the future.

Before the guys and I drove up to the cabin, we had one major stop to make. James’ Boat Shop. If we were going up to Mrs. Boone’s cabin on a lake, we needed a nice boat to take with us. So much had changed since Calvin and I went with his dad to sell their boat, so it was nice to see that James’ Boat Shop was exactly the same. Including a much, much older Wilson who still barked loudly on the porch.

“Quiet, Wilson!” James said, walking outside. “Damn dog hasn’t shut up in years.” The dog howled louder, as if telling its owner to fuck off. James smiled and scratched his gray hair. “I gotta tell you, it’s not every day Grammy award winning bands call me up to see if I can hook them up with a boat. It’s a pleasure meeting you all.” He laughed, shaking our hands.

Calvin shook James’ hand and said, “You actually met Brooks and myself about ten years ago. My dad came here to sell his boat, and your son showed us that huge yacht.”

“Jenna.” He nodded, pride in his eyes. “That would be her. You’re not here to rent her out, are you?”

I laughed. “No. I’m thinking we might need something a bit smaller. Something to just go out and fish on.”

“Well, I guess I won’t argue that too much. Hmm…we just got in this nice pontoon boat for renting. It’s great for fishing, has the couches and the lounge chairs for extra comfort. It really has a nice luxury feel to it, but doesn’t feel like too much. I think you’ll love it.”

“Anything…smaller?” I asked. “We kind of want that old-school fishing feeling.”

James nodded. “What kind of boat did you guys use to have?”

“A center console,” Calvin replied. “It wasn’t anything huge, but it worked out great.”

“Ah, then a center console it is if you boys ain’t afraid of being close.”

“Nah,” Oliver said, wrapping Rudolph’s head under his arm. “We like to snuggle.”

“God, I hate you!” Rudolph.

“Come on, little brother. What have I told you before? You don’t have to call me God. Your Majesty works just fine.”

I rolled my eyes at my bandmates who never changed. James told us to come inside to his office to work out the paperwork. As he spoke, Oliver ate all of the black licorice on James’ desk, making Rudolph groan.

“You know that shit is poison, right? Like, you do understand how bad it is for your body?”

Oliver tossed two more pieces into his mouth and shrugged. “This candy is my jam.”

“You’re disgusting,” his brother said.

“I gotta be honest, Oli. Rudolph is right this time. Nobody in their right mind likes black licorice,” I said, jumping into the conversation.

“Obviously this guy likes it since he’s giving it out to his customers!” Oliver bellowed while eating more.

James laughed, sliding a few pieces of paperwork my way for me to sign. “Guilty as charged. It’s my favorite. I eat about a pack a day, and my son hates me for it. He said it’s going to kill me someday, but I just remind him that my cigarettes will probably get me before the licorice does.” James winked, making us all snicker.

James hooked us up with the perfect-sized boat for our weekend and a trailer to hook up to our car. It wasn’t long before we hit the road for the long trip. The cabin was a good four-hour drive, but once you got there you didn’t regret a second of it.

“I can’t believe Mrs. Boone has this place up here and never uses it,” Calvin exclaimed as we pulled up to the log cabin. When Mrs. Boone said the cabin was on a lake, she left out the fact that the lake was the size of what some would consider an ocean. Looking out from her dock, you could hardly see the other side.

She also had a shed with a collection of six small canoes.

The cabin itself was huge and beyond amazing. There was a total of twelve rooms, including three bathrooms and five bedrooms. The living room was decked out with a giant moose head over the stone fireplace, and in the corner of the room, there was a huge jukebox that played all the good oldies music. For a nickel, a person could select five of fifty different songs.